The Sea Shell Wind Chimes

The Sea Shell Wind Chimes
Originally uploaded by rkeithstewart

The wind chimes has a nice soft "clink" sound to them. I really loved the colors here. The yellow in the background is the Japanese Maple in its fall colors.

I may need to move the chimes in order to maximize the wind it gets - right now it's on the back porch that is screened in and doesn't get some of the more gently breezes.

The Ugly Soap

The Ugly Soap
Originally uploaded by rkeithstewart

The Ugly Soap - it lathers great and doesn't dry my skin.

Fall in South Alabama...

Fall in South Alabama...
Originally uploaded by rkeithstewart

This photo is about as good as it gets this week. We have pretty much been busy trying to get everyone well (whole family has been sick with a cold or something similar). We did get in the yard for awhile on Sunday (the temperature was in the mid-sixties) and played for awhile. I began thinking about a place to have an herb garden next summer. I've read in a couple of sources that the "average" family only needs an area of about 6 feet by 4 feet in order to have the space needed for growing herbs.

The only problem right now is deciding which herbs we would want to take the trouble to plant. I know garlic isn't really an herb (is it?) but I would like to include garlic bulbs in our herb garden. We had a single garlic bulb a few years ago that Benita got from her grandmother in Louisiana that produced wonderful garlic. The bulbs were actually juicy, similar to an onion, and was great in Fettucine Alfredo.

I have a place picked out that I will start working on with leaves and compost.

I have also still been researching soap-making. The original batch (that was very ugly) is cured now and I have been using it. The soap itself is good, but the look and smell aren't there yet. We need to keep looking at others' recipes (is that the right word for a soap concoction?). One place I have found has a lot of good information - Kathy Miller has been making her own various soaps for over 30 years - great pictures.

Really, I Don't Like Snakes

Identify the Snake ?
Originally uploaded by rkeithstewart

I spent Saturday morning recapturing leaves. What others call a “convenient curbside service provided by our city“, Benita calls “giving our leaves away”, so now instead of “raking” leaves I “recapture” leaves. Last fall I decided to place the raked leaves around the bases of the pecan trees and along the fence. We have added vegetable scraps and coffee grounds at various areas under the leafs to encourage microscopic activity in our yard. The nitrogen in the leaves is sufficient to fertilize our grass and to provide a great area for composting. We don’t do composting with the fancy compost barrels - ours is one step above throwing the scraps onto the yard. I guess our method could be described as somewhere between passive composting and extremely passive composting. We place the scraps under the leaves and pretty much just leave it alone.

We have wondered whether we are actually doing anything because we don’t check on the compost and we don’t spread it around. We haven’t seen many earthworms (which we expected). One clue that we may be having some ecological impact is the presence of little brownish/bronze colored snakes. I found one a few weeks ago under some boards in the backyard. This was in an area we the kids play and without knowing much about the snake I didn’t think it would be a good idea to let the snake remain. A few days later we found another snake like the previous one on the carport. I caught it and put it in a jar for examination (see photo) and then sent it on it’s way. Roger Clay, with the Alabama Department of Conservation identified the snake as a redbelly snake (storeria occipitomaculata). Which, according to what we have read is a reclusive snake that lives in piles of decaying leaves and wood (Wikipedia) and is non-poisonous.

So yesterday I was adding more vegetable scraps to the composting area in the front yard. Guess what I saw when I pushed back the leaves to place the scraps on the dirt - yes, another of the brown snakes. This time I just let him crawl into the undisturbed leaves. I guess we are having some impact. This is a really odd attitude I've developed toward snakes. Really odd because I really HATE snakes.

I'm Kind Of Getting Into This Soap-Making Thing

By looking up the methods and ingredients myself, I'm learing a lot more than when Benita just tells me about it. It's a very interesting subject that is very historical.

The method that Benita made her soap with is the cold process method, meaning the oils and lye are mixed together as they cool - no cooking is involved. Anyone who remembers "The Beverly Hillbillies" probably remembers Granny standing over a pot in the back yard making lye soap - another method, but not cold process.

This is a website I found that is pretty interesting: http://www.certified-lye.com/index.html


What I'm finding out is that we should not have used the soap the other day - the lye was still harmful at that point in the process. Also, the smell is supposed to go away as the soap cures.

Soap Update

The soap results were not so impressive. After the first day the soap had not sufficiently dried so we heated the mixture back up and re-molded it. It came out better the second day, but the soap is not beautiful. It also doesn't feel very good. We used some of it to wash our hands and it felt good while we were washing, but after our hands dried they seemed very dry. We both had to use lotion on our hands to make them feel better.

We now have the bars drying out of the way (about a three week process). We'll see how it turns out.

Also, the soap doesn't smell very good. It's kind of chalky smelling.

Another Project That Doesn't Have Much to Do With Farming

Sea Shells for Wind Chime
Originally uploaded by rkeithstewart

These are some shells that were collected by a co-worker who lives near the beach in Gulf Shores (Alabama). I found a long piece of driftwood along the bay in Fairhope last year with the idea of adding shells to it to become a windchime.

I finally got around to it last week after I found a piece of similar driftwood. Me and the kids (mostly me) worked on tying the shells together with ribbon to make the chimes. I've added the chimes to the driftwood but I haven't hung the whole thing up. (My wife says her favortie windchimes are the ones in the neighbor's yard).

What's this got to do with life on a quarter acre? Not much - especailly not much to do with farming. It's probably just restlessness and the need to do something that feels productive (not like my work).

I do like the idea of making something that is tangible and incorporates natural items. I like it that the kids can (kind of) participate too (if I let them).

A Work In Progess

Kudzu Christmas Wreath
Originally uploaded by rkeithstewart

This is the Kudzu Christmas Wreath I've been working on. It's beginning to look a litte more finished and full as I add vines. It's amazing how it kind of becomes an obsession - twisting and pulling the vines and the "challenge" of getting everything to stay together and shaped.

No Crops

Grape Leaf Spring and Fall
Originally uploaded by rkeithstewart

I've got to admit that I was a little disappointed with our "crop" this year. Our pecans vanished - maybe it was the rain, it could have been the hurricanes and tropical storms that blew by us - but something got them. We didn't get enough even to pick up.

The new grape vine yielded one bunch of grapes. They tasted (and had the consistency) of scuppernongs. This yield was to be expected during the first year I'm sure.

We got a few tomatoes - not enough to freeze. We got no blueberries (their first year also). Hopefully next year will be better.

At least we have the soap to look forward to. I'll put up some pictures of the Kudzu Christmas wreath later.

Time to Make the Soap

I (Benita) finally made soap today --- something I began thinking about a few months ago.

It started out as an idea for making Christmas gifts, and then as an idea for another income. I found a recipe in a book and watched some videos on YouTube.

My holdup began with my search for lye. Did you know that you can't find it on store shelves anymore? One local hardware store has a newspaper article about how lye is used in home drug labs posted on the shelf where lye had previously been stocked. So I called the Red Devil company (1-800-423-3845, recommended in Better Basics for the Home) who referred me to a company where I could buy the lye online.

I never knew soap was so full of oils and grease - Olive Oil, Crisco, Coconut Oil. As I read more and watched videos I realized that this is no small undertaking. I needed a special kitchen scale, gloves, goggles (it seems that lye is very dangerous and should be used only outdoors and should not get on your skin).

To begin the process I gathered the gloves, goggles, measured the oils and took the lye outside on the carport while my sweet husband (supportive in all my crazy endeavors) melted the fats. I poured the lye into the water and let the temperature slowly drop to the "magic" point (about 95 - 105 degrees) so the lye mixture could be added to the fats mixture. It is apparently very important to the chemical process for the two mixtures to be about the same temperature when mixed together so the lye mixture will turn the fats into glycerin. After mixing everything together I had to stir for about an hour.

Then I added lavender essential oil, poured it into a container, wrapped it in blankets, and have now left it to set till tomorrow evening when I will cut it and let it dry for a few weeks.